WILSON — Cost of living increases for employees of the City of Wilson were reviewed and approved during Monday’s meeting of the Wilson City Council.

After a 15-minute executive session to discuss non-elected personnel (employee compensation), the following COLA increases were approved by a vote of 4-1:

• Susan Kriley, city clerk, 2 percent.

• Joshua Tipton, police chief, 1.3 percent.

• Cathy Smith, assistant city clerk, 1.3 percent.

• Janiece Kornmeyer, cleaning person, 2 percent.

• Jonathan Lawrence, reserve police officer, 2 percent.

• Don Browning, assistant superintendent, 1.3 percent.

• Joe Soukup, maintenance superintendent, zero percent.

Council member Chuck Crawford was the sole no vote. He asked the council to grant the same amount of COLA to city across the board.

Tipton also received a 75 centper-hour raise in salary.

In other business:

• A one-year contract with Theresa Staudinger to serve as Wilson City attorney was approved. Staudinger will be paid $200 per hour. Mayor Mike Peschka said Staudinger will no longer attend every meeting of the city council. The contract will begin Jan. 1, 2021 and end Dec. 31, 2021.

“I’m completely comfortable with the contract,’ Peschka said.

• Tipton, who is also head of the city’s board of health, briefly reviewed several properties listed as having violations of city ordinances: 616 24th Street, 3016 Ave. E, 705 24th Street, 305 24th Street and 208 26th Street.

• Debra Hill and Nikki Whitmer will serve on the city board of health. The next meeting of the board will take place after the first of the year.

• Bills in the amount of $24,803.45 were approved to be paid as was payroll in the amount of $10,409,99.

• Council members Darcy Hubka-Vopat and David Criswell had nothing new to report on preparations to implement the Abandoned Building Ordinance No. 854. Vopat and Criswell are working to overhaul the city database of buildings as part of the implementation process. Peschka said he is willing to help in that effort if needed.

• During a brief discussion of the effort to repair the former Robinson garage, which is used to store the city van, Peschka said he has talked to several contractors about giving bids for the work. One said he was interested and will provide a bid. The other said he was not interested. Council member Dan Taylor also talked to a contractor about submitting a bid. Peschka said it would probably cost several thousand dollars to make the needed repairs to the garage. The council is awaiting the bids.

• Further discussion and approval of Union Pacific Railroad land leases was tabled until the Jan. 4 meeting.

• A $6,800 bid from C&E Doors for three doors for the city power plant was approved as was a $770 bid from C&E Doors for an opener for the ambulance building door.

• Approval was given for J.R. Burkhead to serve as a volunteer firefighter on the Wilson Fire Department. He will have a 90-day probation period.

• Taylor asked the council to consider changing the starting time of the city council meetings from 7 p.m. to 6 p.m. Peschka said that was something the council will give some thought to.

• Peschka said the city keeps getting reports of a lot of stray dogs in town. He plans to have a notice put together and distributed informing residents there is a city ordinance dealing with dogs and there are penalties for not following the ordinance. He said the city has also received several reports of dogs not being tagged or vaccinated.

• Peschka said the city is trying to find a solution to the problem of stray cats in town. He said Kriley has called surrounding communities for their ideas, but so far, no solutions have been found.

The next meeting of the Wilson City Council is at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 4, at city hall.